Six Months
by FoxeyHound
Summary: Jarring narrative and interquel recounting Jake's struggles with being alone for six months  from "No One Can Hear You" . Includes the disappearance of the candy people, his head injury, and his gradual decline into insanity.
1. Prologue

**BANG!**

Jake looked up from where he had crashed only moments earlier. The crying scream that Finn shouted was stopped and replaced by the loud noise he had just heard. There stood the deer—the animal responsible for the current predicament they were in. Beyond him, lying unconscious underneath a lamp post, was his 13 year old human adoptive brother and best friend ever.

He let out a shocked gasp, mouth agape, eyes wide with fear and fury. With an angry scream, he stretched and grew his paw to the size of a house.

"You're dead!" he shouted. The deer turned and sprinted, barely escaping Jake's giant fist that was to smash on him. The canine grunted in frustration, shrinking his paw back to normal size and getting back up on all fours. He was ready to chase after the incendiary, but was grappled from behind, preventing him from running.

"Jake!" Princess Bubblegum pleaded. "Jake, stop! Just let him go, he's fleeing the city!"

Jake was squirming around in the princess' arms, trying to break free, growling in malicious rage.

"Jake, please stop! Forget the deer, we gotta help Finn!"

"FINN?" the dog barked. "...Finn?"

Jake's anger was slowly beginning to go away. When took its place was fear and worry.

"FINN!" Jake called in concern. The princess started running, waving her hand at Jake signaling him to come with. The rushed over to his best friend's side, afraid and scared.

The young teenager was sprawled out on the ground, the only indication that he was alive being the slow rise and fall of his chest. His hat was slightly slipped off, revealing his disheveled, sunshine blond hair, as well as a dark blue welt on his forehead, which was roughly the size of Finn's fist.

Jake kneeled over his friend's unconscious body in anxiety. "Finn?" he whimpered softly. "Finn, wake up...C'mon, bro, stop messin' around...Finn!"

"Jake, move outta the way! We need to get him to the hospital now!"

The dog took a hold of Finn's arms as the princess grabbed his legs, and they quickly, but carefully, jogged in the direction of the Candy Kingdom's general hospital. Jake felt like he was floating, though; he was distant from reality and what was happening. All he could think of was his best friend, and praying that he was okay.


	2. Chapter I

A living pound cake entered the waiting room to tell a certain magical dog some information about his best friend. Said dog stopped his nervous pacing immediately when he saw the nurse come out. He didn't say a word, but his expression asked what he was thinking.

"He is alright," Nurse Poundcake informed, "Broken legs are nothing serious or life-threatening. However, we are not certain how long he'll be out for or when he'll make a full recovery."

It was bittersweet news for Jake. He was grateful that his best pal wasn't going to die from this incident, yet was shattered to hear that he was going to be in a comatose state for an indefinite period of time.

The nurse could see the dog's mixed emotions written on his face. "Try not to worry too much, Jake. We assure you that he is in good hands."

"I know he is," he listlessly replied, puffing out a heavy sigh. He appreciated the pound cake's reassuring words, but they made no difference. "Thank you, Nurse Poundcake. I'll try to keep my spirits up out of the dumps."

The nurse simply gave a caring, sympathetic smile. With that, she turned and strolled out of the hospital's waiting room.

It was unusually quiet and inactive for the hospital that night. No one came in seeking any kind of medical assistance, leaving only Jake and the front desk receptionist present. Jake was pretty glad no one else was around, though; he often found it embarrassing when others saw him shedding tears, no matter how little it may be.

A window was positioned next to the front doors. He gazed at it, at his faint reflection, the slightly ruby eyes of himself looking back at him. It was too depressing, so he refocused his vision past the windowpane and outside at the Candy Kingdom. House and shops were dark. All the candy people had retired for the night, most having been asleep for a few hours by then. Lampposts distributed evenly at the corner of every intersection were the only sources of light. Even with all the lamplight and a decent amount of moonlight, the roads were still considerably muted behind a shroud of black.

_The deer..._

Jake scowled. The miscreant he and Finn were trying to stop earlier was the whole reason he was in this situation. He glared into the dark shadows where the lamplight didn't shine.

_Ugh! For all I know, that stupid dumb-butt could be out there right this very moment_!

His paw unconsciously curled into a tight first, while his eyes snapped shut. The rough sound of his teeth grinding in rage filled his ears, along with the increased rhythm of his heart beats. Without thinking, he yelled an incoherent scream of frustration, morphed his fist to the size of a grapefruit, and punched the wall with massive force, the impact of which creating a huge crater in the wall. It was coupled with a loud smashing noise that reverberated through the room, and echoed down the various hallways. The desire to cause more damage left him. So his fist stayed in the hole he had just pounded in as he breathed heavily. That's when he remembered where he was.

He snapped his head around and looked at the receptionist, who was now wide-eyed with a fearful demeanor on. The dog's cheeks began to flare up and burn as he slowly returned his paw to its normal size and away from the wall. The crater in it was clear as day.

Jake nervously chuckled as he slowly backed up to the front doors. "Well, um...I gotta get goin', I got this...thing...that I..."

He didn't even bother to complete his sentence; instead he turned and exited the building at full speed, sprinting for his tree house.

~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~||~ ~\\~ ~\\~ ~\\~

He sat inside the boat of the makeshift observatory, the highest point of the dwelling, as well as a solace for the dog whenever he needed time to think. The wind blew the steam rising from his cup of tea in his face, but it didn't affect his gaze that focused on the tallest candy tower in the Candy Kingdom—an empty stare that hid an equally empty mind behind it.

It was dim, but the waning alabaster moon made the land in front of him fairly visible. Last time he had checked—roughly half an hour prior when he returned to his home—it was 2:37 in the morning. He had gone out to do some things to get his mind off of Finn.

First, he stopped by his girlfriend's place. Despite the darkness, it was still pretty early in the evening, roughly 8:15 when he arrived, so the two of them put together an impromptu movie night. They decided on a tape that had a film made before the Great Mushroom War, a movie titled "Titanic." Jake had seen the movie a thousand times before, but it still made him cry every time (not that he would ever admit that to anyone). Given the length of the movie, and the twenty or so minutes of chitchat before watching it, it was close to midnight when he left Lady's place. Spending time with his girlfriend always got his mind off of worrisome issues. He simply loved her with all his heart and often wondered how there wasn't another guy that she would prefer. While it worked when he was with her, he began to dwell on what happened earlier that day soon after he left.

So he then went on his way to the Candy Tavern. His original plan was to just drink whatever he felt like and wallow in sadness. Thankfully, though, Marceline was playing bass with two other vampires, one on drums, and one on guitar. He later found out that they were acquaintances of hers, but, due to clashing personalities other than the same taste in music, they only jammed together. After their set was over, they both just drank and talked. Jake didn't drink much, but a few too many drinks went down the vampire's throat, however. Consequently, she began to act funny, such as bursting into laughter at petty things and becoming easily distracted. In the end, Jake had to put her on his back while he grew in size and took her home. The travel—one that was reduced from a two hour walk to a 15 minute one—was very uncomfortable for him, though, as Marceline began flirting with him and sensually playing with his ears and fur. To add to his nerves, when he took the inebriated vampire queen to her bedroom, she kept asking him to stay the night with her and they could "have some fun." Jake—being a male—had a strong urge to accept her offer, but he could never do anything to hurt Lady. He simply declined her and left to go back home for the night. The silver lining in that odd situation was that it got the events that took place earlier off his mind.

He arrived home not much later after that, made himself some tea, and went up to the boat observatory to relax. Lifting up his cup, he took a sip, but it didn't suck anything in except air. His eyes shifted down as he looked at his empty cup momentarily. A drawn out sigh released through his mouth; he simply dropped the cup carelessly on the floor of the boat and watched it roll about briefly.

_The deer..._

Jake gritted his teeth forcefully. There had to be a way he could get revenge, but the question was how? Not only that, but he wondered whether or not the ne'er-do-well would even return to the kingdom and resume his harassment. If not, it would be incredibly difficult to catch it, for it could be hiding anywhere within the immense land of Ooo. If only there was a way to keep surveillance on the Candy Kingdom to ensure the deer got caught and captured if and when it did come back.

Jake became aware of how heavy his eyes felt, and released a strong, forceful yawn. Deciding to put off plotting his revenge until the next day, and because it was a beautiful autumn night, the canine lay down on his back and closed his eyes, too tired to get up and get in his bed.


End file.
